A guide to winning the Seedcorn competition – Part 3

Posted by Ronan on Aug 25, 2010 in Seedcorn, cauwill, comment, ireland, startup, technology | 0 comments

Part 3 of the guide covers: the Operations, the Key Risks, the Financials, the Funding and the very important Exit.

These sections really bring the plan to a close and it’s focused one major thing: Think Jerry Maguire – think “Show me the Money!”.

You need to show the money (twice).

1. Money that company will make from the product year to year
2. The amount of money the company will be turning over in 3 / 5 years

Remember you are inside the mind of an investor.. if they are going to but €MONEY into the company they will want to see a return of, say, 10 times €Money. You have to be realistic. You can’t sell an iPhone App to every owner of an iPhone. You’ll get a % (a two digit number if your lucky). Investors are very smart and will therefore spot any flaw.

The last section is “The Exit”. For us (and presumably others) this was a very short section – we clearly stated what we wanted to happen in 3 years. The investor wants to see an exit otherwise no matter how good everything is they won’t invest. Scroll down to see an answer investors like to see.

Tomorrows post will conclude the series and have a word document template with even more comment!

Nokia n900

Posted by Ronan on Jun 21, 2010 in comment, phone, technology | 0 comments

So we got to play with a Nokia n900 phone for the past week. Well, it’s not really a phone – It’s more like a small tablet PC!
Yes it makes phone calls, yes it sends and receives SMS’s but let me explain why it’s a Tablet PC and not a phone.

Under the hood the n900 has ARM Cortex-A8 processor with up to 1Gb of Ram and 32GB internal storage, 3.5mm AV connector
TV out (PAL/NTSC), Micro-USB connector, High-Speed USB 2.0 Bluetooth/WIFI/Integrated FM transmitter and the quickest Integrated GPS with A-GPS I’ve ever seen on a nokia. Not to mention it has a full qwerty keyboard, a good 5mp camera but unfortunately the device is let down a little by the dodgy touch screen. The stylus does improve the touch screen but not something I would use all the time so I’ve been left tapping the n900 a couple of times before I get the desired response. Anyhoo – that’s a lot of spec for just a ‘phone’ – this thing is capable of running XP for heavens sake!

The operating system, Maemo, is built on Linux so you get all the benefits of a Linux OS – It’s not every day you can open one can open an x-term on a phone and ssh into your cloud! sweet!

The user interface is pretty good – nice and swishy. Nokia have kept some of the Symbian look and feel (most notably under the main menu) but the rest of the system is what you expect from a modern phone, errr, tablet pc.

Here is a list of my favourite apps so far

• Facebrick
• TweeGo
• Angry Birds
• Stellarium
• Hermes
• Firefox
• Foreca Weather Widget
• rootsh
• wifiEye

Some of the downsides:

How to tune ITV HD on a Sky box

Posted by Ronan on Jun 11, 2010 in technology | 0 comments

Mayday!

Posted by Ronan on May 5, 2010 in LEAP, Seedcorn, ireland, software, startup, technology | 1 comment

Where does the time go? It’s absolutely flying by. Things are good  but I think I need a break.

Not so long ago the country was crippled by frost and ice – nobody could go anywhere.  Then the deadly ash cloud covered the country and again people were grounded & having to stay put. I’m just wondering what’s next to hit Ireland!? Dust storms? Locusts? Unlikely. They better stay away because I need a break. It’s been over 2 years since I went away for 10 days and switched off. (that means no laptop or blackberry) so it’s high time.

It’s hard to think this time last year I was UL worrying about lectures, students, papers, publishing etc. it’s now a distant memory. It was a tough decision to leave but I’m glad I did. Had I not, I’d still be in UL worrying about lectures, students, papers, publishing etc.

It’s been a terrific year for the Cauwill with things going from strength to strength. Just last week I was delighted to see two more hotels coming online and using the technology as part of their booking – it  made me smile.

The year has brought great challenges and we’ve been learning new (technical & business related) stuff  everyday. LEAP has been good too and I’m glad I did. The year has been a roller-coaster ride with lots of lows including sleepless nights, worrying, having minor-to-major panic attacks when something goes wrong, stressed to max, wondering when were  going to sign a customer, wondering if anyone would ever use the service. But of course on the flip side, the highs have been great including successfully delivery a quality product, securing and getting paid by customers,  receiving a thank-you note from users who love the service and of course let’s not forget InterTrade Ireland Seedcorn

Since we’ve won it’s been really busy.. for sure we’ve had some knock-backs but all-in-all it’s been positive.  You need to be able to take the highs with the lows in this game.

For those entering, I’ll be posting a blog on our experience last year, what we included in the business plan & presentation.

Anyway.. that’s for a little later in the meantime I need recommendations for a vacation! Answers on a postcard please

Palm Pre Review

Posted by Ronan on Feb 28, 2010 in comment, phone, technology | 1 comment

So when I first got the Palm Pre I thought it was the worst phone I ever owned.. it’s now 5 weeks – has my opinion changed?

Hell yah!

My biggest two problems with the phone were battery related. The batter problem blinded me from the greatness of this phone. I got so frustrated with the phone because of :

1/ Opening/closing the phone or throwing it on bed would cause the phone to go dead

2/ Using the phone to get auto-retrieve email/tweets etc would drain the battery in less than 16 hours

So, to fix number 1/ slide a piece of plastic between the battery and the case. This will prevent it from moving around and stop the phone from going dead!

To fix number 2/ Set the email retrieval to  auto, likewise with Tweed. In ‘Location Services’ set the Auto Locate to OFF and Background Collect to OFF also.

These two simple changes (ok DIY fix)  make the phone very usable! I now get (sometimes over) 2 days out of the phone.

The phone is pretty nice. The User Interface is fast and clean. The touch screen is really responsive (and yes I have used a iPhone/Touch). The ability to have multiple programs open, as cards,  and easily switch between the cards is very cool. While the phone is in it’s closed position, there is a single button the maximises or minimise applications. When clicked it allows you to swish left or right  between the cards. Flicking an application upwards (out of the screen) closes the application.. I really like this!!

For a full information of all the features.. check out this 10 minute review

Here is some of things that get to me but not a deal breaker.  Comparing it to other phones;

- it’s keyboard (but I love the fact it has a qwerty keyboard) is a bit cramped compared to the 8900 BlackBerry Curve

- the browser isn’t as fast as the iPhone

- the camera isn’t as good as the Nokia N82 one

- It doesn’t have _proper_ navigation software like Nokia Maps on the N82.

The Palm Pre has a nice feel about the it. Very smooth, fits nicely in the hand and doesn’t appear too big while in the pocket.  I’m a tactile kinda of person and I love sliding up the phone to reveal the keyboard and the satisfying clunk noise it makes when you close the phone.

Palm Synergy makes asks you to select and sign into the services you use – like gmail, twitter, facebook and linkedin. Synergy then goes off and links all your contacts (from the various services) and merges then into your contact list. It brings all the emails, phone numbers, picture etc.  This is just fantastic and saves you such much time.. 10/10 for the synergy app alone.

Now that web OS 1.4 is out which promises improved battery life –  I think this could be a winner!!

8/10 for the Palm Pre phone

Installing Nokia Maps 3 on a Nokia N82

Posted by Ronan on Jan 31, 2010 in software, technology | 0 comments

Had loads of fun getting Nokia Maps on my n82. I had an original version and automatic updates would constantly give the error

Unable to Install. Component built in.

Grrr…

so after much reading around I’ve put the following together..  kudos to http://betalabs.nokia.com

DISCLAIMER:

The following will reset everything (EVERYTHING!!) and you will need to re-install apps again (ovi will help !). The following will  install Maps 3 and restore your contacts.

1. Sync contact list with Ovi
2. If you want – Back-up your memory card but exclude the Cities folder and qf file
3. Hard reset  - Enter  *#7370# on the standby screen (This could take up to 6 minutes to reset.. white screen for quite a bit.. be brave.. don’t remove the battery!)
4. Format memory card (you can do this via Tools>Utilities>Memory.. Options Format Card). Buhbye memory card.. THIS WILL WIPE EVERYTHING!

5. Get operator settings for network connectivity (02 will send them OTA to open use code is 1234) 
6. Open Maps and exit
7. Connect phone again via USB and Run Maps Updater. Update and wait for licence and voice navigation 
8. Open Maps after it’s updated. Make sure the application does open and it does the removal of old maps (which was created by step 6)
9. If Maps opens but shutdown by itself, remove memory card and open maps without memory card.
Then delete the cities and qf files using a PC. Put memory card back in and reopen maps.
10. Synch with OVI for contacts again 
11. Reinstall any application and settings you have previously
12. Download new maps..

Enjoy.